A really decent proposal

Proposal

Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator

Forrest proposed to her boyfriend Dylan Paxton in Toronto, Scott Pilgrim style. The proposal has gained attention on sites such as Reddit, Huffington Post, Torontoist, The Mary Sue, ComicsAlliance and more. The proposal was tweeted by the Scott Pilgrim creator himself.

Proposal

Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator

Forrest proposed to her boyfriend Dylan Paxton in Toronto, Scott Pilgrim style. The proposal has gained attention on sites such as Reddit, Huffington Post, Torontoist, The Mary Sue, ComicsAlliance and more. The proposal was tweeted by the Scott Pilgrim creator himself.

Dylan Paxton wasn’t otherwise engaged that morning, so of course, he accompanied his girlfriend, Jennifer Forrest, to Toronto and by late afternoon, he was. Engaged, that is.

On Sept. 15, they left early from their apartment on Forest Avenue in Hamilton, got on the bus, got off at the other end of the QEW, and then Jennifer handed Dylan the first of many envelopes.

Yes, love is a journey. But this was more. This was the beginning of what can only be called a ... pilgrimage. A Scott Pilgrim-age. Inside the first envelope were panels of images from Dylan and Jennifer’s favourite graphic novels.

The images pointed to a place. Yonge-Dundas Square. If you’re up on your Scott Pilgrim, you’ll know it’s mentioned in the books, as are many other actual Toronto locations.

If you’re not up on your graphic novels (or movie adaptations thereof, namely Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Pilgrim is the hero of the series by Torontonian Bryan Lee O’Malley. He must undergo harrowing trials to win his love, Ramona Flowers. The movie, starring Michael Cera, was a big hit in 2010.

It was Dylan’s challenge to get himself and Jennifer to each of the locations enclosed in the envelopes, by foot, bus, subway, however. The locations, all depicted in the books, include: the Toronto Reference Library; Lee’s Palace; the Baldwin Steps and Honest Ed’s. There were many others.

“We got to about 10 locations,” says Jennifer, 25, who works at Mohawk College. “I’d made about 13 envelopes but we had to skip a few because that was the weekend the Gardiner was closed.”

The city had ground to a halt.

“I didn’t really think it was leading up to anything,” says Dylan.

Just another one of Jennifer’s novel ideas for whiling away the hours.

It was a great, albeit exhausting, day of meandering around the city, following O’Malley’s bread crumbs, so to speak. Then the final envelope directed them to Casa Loma.

There, by the retaining wall, she presented Dylan with a certificate she’d made herself.

It featured a PaintShopped cartoon of Dylan’s face (“I had to put in his stubble, one dot at a time,” says Jennifer) and it said: “Dylan Earned a Fiance.”

“I read that and turned around, and she was there with a double ring box,” says Dylan, 24, who works at Fido.

She proposed. Dylan accepted.

“I was super-excited and so happy that she wants to spend the rest of her life with me. I guess there’s something she seems to like about me.”

The day ended at a restaurant with Dylan’s sister and several of their friends. They knew about it.

“I’m surprised we kept the secret,” says Jennifer. “Dylan’s so nosy. It was hard to take out money to get the rings (without him noticing).”